Day: October 25, 2012

Wishing Malaysian Muslims a happy and meaningful Hari Raya Haji!

Syed Jaymal Zahiid | October 24, 2012 Free Malaysia Today

The former premier said this is because the Malays are no longer the kingmakers and are now reduced to being ‘beggars’ in their own land.

KUALA LUMPUR: Dr Mahathir Mohamad today called the Najib administration “weak” and said it will not entertain the concerns of the Malays, especially its business community, as they are no longer the country’s kingmakers.

The former premier said the division among the country’s majority electorate has made them fragile and forced the present government to depend on the support of “others” in an apparent reference to the non-Malays.

This is the second time Mahathir had openly called Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s government “frail”, saying it is forced to make key concessions to non-Malay demands in the hope of winning their support in the upcoming national polls.

“I do not believe this government will take your demands seriously,” he told the 2012 Malay Economic Congress held here.

“This is because we [the Malays] no longer hold anymore political power… we have become a beggar in our own country,” he added. Continue reading “Dr M: ‘Weak’ Najib won’t heed Malay concerns”

Has the MCA President Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek turned MCA into “Malaysian Charlatans Party” by keeping quiet on the hudud answer given by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom in Parliament on Tuesday, exposing the utter hypocrisy of the MCA campaign on hudud in the past two years?

Yesterday, in my media statement “UMNO/MCA’s ‘Devil’s Compact’ confirmed by Mahathir within 24 hours”, I had posed the question to Chua and the MCA leadership whether Jamil’s parliamentary reply “if hudud laws are implemented in Malaysia, they will not have any implications on non-Muslims” represented the stand of MCA in Cabinet and BN, “and if not, what are they going to do about it”.

There has been no answer but only thunderous silence!

How can this be the case when in the past two years, Chua had been leading his coterie of MCA Ministers and Deputy Ministers up and down the country with only one campaign theme – that it is a “lie” that hudud laws will not affect non-Muslims. Continue reading “Has Chua Soi Lek turned MCA into Malaysian Charlatans Party by keeping quiet on Jamil’s parliamentary answer on hudud?”

by Nigel Aw & Lu Wei Hoong
Malaysiakini
Oct 21, 2012

Over four years after MCA suffered its worst electoral debacle since the formation of BN, the party at its annual general assembly meeting today appeared to have confidently settled on its agenda ahead of the national polls that must be called by early next year.

Following the charged anti-Pakatan and particularly anti-DAP rhetoric of its Youth and Women wings’ AGMs yesterday, the main AGM today was carefully crafted from beginning to end as a rallying cry before a general election described as the party’s “life and death” battle.

From breaking its decade-long tradition of white uniforms in favour of BN’s blue tees, to political banners decorating the MCA headquarters, the message in the words of MCA president Chua Soi Lek was simple: “We are ready for war.”

Chua during his closing remarks said, “In the over 20 years of AGMs that I have attended, this is the first time I have seen so many people remaining in this hall.”

The lucky draw and souvenirs for those who stayed back and the pouring rain outside may have helped to retain over 1,000 delegates of the 1,689 who attended today, but it was still a commendable achievement for any political party’s AGM and reflects the careful planning behind the gathering. Continue reading “Has MCA’s soul searching taken it full circle?”

— Clive Kessler
The Malaysian Insider
Oct 25, 2012

OCT 25 — The infliction of the hudud punishments will not affect, or have any impact upon, non-Muslims, the minister has sought to assure everybody ( “Hudud will not impact non-Muslims, minister says”, The Malaysian Insider, October 24).

Just consider for a moment.

The state will inflict the hudud punishments on some of its citizens. On their bodies, and brutally.

Since it will be acting as the state, and not as some instrument of private punishment or vengeful enforcement, it will be doing so in the name of all of its citizens. That is what, by definition, modern states are.

So all of the state’s citizens, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, will be complicit in, and will share moral responsibility for, the infliction of those punishments.

And, as a result, their nature as “moral agents” will be transformed by that complicity, by their dragooned participation in and shared authorship of those mandatory stonings, amputations and the like.

Yet the minister says that these non-Muslim citizens will be in no way affected, or “impacted.”

It is an assurance that is entirely unconvincing. One that is patently inadequate, ill-founded and wrong. Continue reading “Ministerial moral insight: A brief comment”

Toffee Rodrigo | October 25, 2012
Free Malaysia Today

According to Muhyiddin Yassin’s camp, campaigning in December will give BN a strategic advantage, given that the middle-class and Christians will be distracted.

COMMENT

Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin’s boys want the general election this year. They are pushing Muhyiddin to pressure Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to dissolve Parliament by Nov 30.

Muhyiddin’s supporters feel Nov 30 should be the latest date, or else Umno and Barisan Nasional will be in trouble.

According to them, campaigning in December will give BN a strategic advantage.

The strategic advantage they are talking about is in East Malaysia. A December poll, they believe, will give the Christians (read opposition) less time to campaign, they will be busy with Christmas and have little time to dwell on politics.

And this will be good for the BN as far as Sarawak is concerned as the natives will be also too busy with the festivities to seek out the alternative media. They will thus depend on the propaganda dished out by the government-controlled mass media especially the radio and TV.

In West Malaysia, the middle class, which is seen to be anti-establishment, will be busy taking holidays. Many of them may not be around even to vote if the election is called in December.

And this is what BN needs to win back states like Selangor and Penang. Continue reading “Muhyiddin’s boys target Nov 30”

S Thayaparan
Malaysiakini
Oct 24, 2012

“Sometimes… it’s better for a man just to walk away.
But if you can’t walk away?
I guess that’s when it’s tough.” – Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman)

COMMENT

MCA president Chua Soi Lek may think that everyone has a role to play in this coming “war”, which is the upcoming general election, but the only role the MCA is going to play is that of cannon fodder in the ultimate showdown between Umno and their arch nemesis Anwar Ibrahim.

I get it. I really do. Malaysians are constantly being told to be grateful. Each community has been brainwashed into thinking they should be grateful for different reasons but above all their gratitude should be directed at Barisan National.

The opposition thinks that non-Malay Malaysians have woken up but the reality is that the MIC and MCA fell asleep on the job. Dereliction of duty when it came to the communal interests of the non-Malays at the expense of Umno hegemony is what has caused the downfall of these component parties. That and of course the infighting, corruption and hubris of being the only game in town.

What is really destroying the MCA is not the propaganda of the DAP but the acceptance by a large voting demographic of the Chinese community that no representation in the government is better than MCA representation. Continue reading “MCA’s long day’s journey into night”

Dr Lim Teck Ghee
CPI

The response by Research for Social Advancement (Refsa) institute to my note is disappointing. It provides little value added to the current knowledge on subsidies in Malaysia; repeats various motherhood statements about the need to rein in subsidies and selectively focuses on so-called various ivory tower statements that they have detected in my note to triumphantly declare victory.

The major contention in my note is necessary to repeat:

It is necessary to remind the REFSA-IDEAS team that subsidies have an important role to play in providing a safety net for vulnerable groups. They help bring down the cost of living as well as enable access to health, education, transport and other necessities.

They are a necessary burden in a highly skewed capitalist economy such as Malaysia’s where the lower classes of labour do not get the fair remuneration that they are entitled to or deserve. Continue reading “Refsa on subsidies: Still off the mark”